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Sanders upsets Clinton in Michigan

In the face of polls that showed him behind by over 20 points, Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Michigan to claim his biggest victory yet in the 2016 race for President, giving Sanders fresh momentum in his fight for the Democratic Party nomination.

“That’s a major, game-changing victory for our campaign,” Sanders said in a fundraising email sent to supporters just before midnight, as he looked ahead to five major states voting on March 15.

“The pollsters said we were way behind,” Sanders added – which was true, as not one recent poll in Michigan hinted at any kind of victory over Clinton.

The victory overshadowed Clinton’s landslide win in Mississippi, where she had an astonishing 83 percent of the vote, capping a series of wins across the Deep South.

But that victory seemed hollow several hours later, when the networks finally called Michigan for Sanders, giving him an opportunity to inject new energy into his long shot bid.

And it left Democrats in the Congress wondering how it happened.

This Michigan result on the Dem side is a real shock. Interested to hear after tonight how the polls ended up being so far off. #DemPrimary

Clinton had hoped to win both states on Tuesday, and create an air of inevitability about her campaign – now, she will have to fight it out with Sanders over the next week in Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Illinois and Florida.

Sanders still has a big delegate deficit. But the Dem race is a lot more interesting if he can compete and win states like IL/OH/MO/PA